COLORADO SPRINGS — The attack at the top of the climb in the Garden of the Gods started like so many others German cyclist Jens Voigt has attempted throughout his 18 years as a professional cyclist.

Is he really? Can he really, at age 42, with some 24 miles to go?

Yes. Oh, yes. This is Jens Voigt, whose audacious — some would say insane — breaks from the peloton so far from the finish, combined with his fearless attitude, still evoke fear among riders and have become an indelible part of his persona.

But this race — Stage 4 of the USA Pro Challenge on Thursday — would not be his. With less than 800 meters (half-mile) to go in the 70.3-mile stage before the finish, the peloton swallowed him, denying Voigt a storybook ending to his day. Cannondale Pro rider Elia Viviani won the stage in a sprint into the heart of downtown Colorado Springs.

“I just needed five years less on my life,” Voigt said after the race. “If I would be 37, I would have won easy. I’m almost 43, and I was just missing three or four or five percent compared to three years or five years ago. That’s just the way nature goes.”

“That was Jens. He knew what he had to do,” former Garmin-Sharp rider Christian Vande Velde said of his breakaway. “The breakaway was not going fast enough. He just couldn’t do what he used to be able to do. The mind knows what he needs to do, but the body can’t.”

Around the course, spectators waved signs, saying, “Shut Up Legs!” — a tribute to one of Voigt’s many sayings, describing what his brain tells his body when it wants to give up in a race.

“I’m not supposed to, or really allowed, to root for anybody. But how can you not root for this great personality?” said Shawn Hunter, CEO of the Pro Challenge. “He’s given our sport so much. My heart broke when he got caught.”

Voigt walks away from a sport that — at least by outward appearances — appears healthier following high-profile doping scandals from the 1990s through until recently, the latest involving American Lance Armstrong.

“People did bad things, obviously,” Voigt said in an interview with The Denver Post on Tuesday in a Mount Crested Butte hotel room. “It was a widespread disease. Since I’ve never been touched by it, never been tempted by it … people can test my samples in 10 years or another 100 years with new measures. There’s just nothing there to find. That’s why it’s easy for me to go through it, because there’s no dead bodies in my closet.

“One of the reasons I’m so competitive — I mean, I’m not winning much anymore — at my age was because I always worked hard and because we have a level playing field. We don’t have motorbikes in the peloton anymore.”

Voigt was never a rider competing for overall race leads. His glory came with occasional stage wins — three in the Tour de France, a few at the Tour of California and one at the Giro d’Italia in 2007, plus winning the Criterium International five times. At the 2012 Pro Challenge, he broke away from the peloton and rode solo from Independence Pass to Beaver Creek to win the stage.

“He’s always an aggressive rider, always exciting to watch,” overall race leader Tejay van Garderen said. “Always has a good sense of humor. Hopefully, he’s a personality that’ll stick around in the sport, if not in racing than in some other fashion.”

His opportunity for a stage win is rapidly closing. He said he expected to try to recover for Friday and race a competitive time trial on Saturday in Vail. Then, there’s the final stage from Boulder to Denver.

“It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, right?” Voigt said. “We’ve got three more days to go, but yeah, I wanted it today, definitely.”

Talk to him long enough — even if it’s after an agonizingly difficult loss such as Thursday’s — and it’s easy to see why he’s loved. He cracks jokes at his own expense. And before races, he signs autographs for fans and poses for photos.

“I’ll miss seeing him at breakfast, or in the hall at the hotel,” said Garmin-Sharp cyclist Tom Danielson. “He just loves what he does for a living. You see so many guys take the opportunity they have for granted. ‘Oh, I’ve got to do another stage today,’ or, ‘Oh, I had a mechanical (issue) yesterday.’ For him, it doesn’t matter how he’s doing in the race. It doesn’t matter how he feels. He always has a smile on his face and doesn’t take one single day of his life for granted. And that’s something we all need to remember.”

But the man who just never seems to give up knows it’s time to stop. He won’t miss the suffering, going to sleep early, racing in bad weather, with mud from other riders splattering in his eyes. He wants to drink beer and eat unhealthy food just because he can. He won’t have to say no when he daughter asks to go horseback riding, fearing he’ll break bones.

“I want to be remembered as somebody working hard, walking straight in life, most of the time,” Voigt said, “and just being a down-to-earth person, being loyal and being indestructible.”

Senior Editor for the Now team at The Denver Post, leading a team focused on breaking and trending stories. He was previously director of audience development, digital director of sports and social media editor.

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